Google I/O, the search giant’s annual conference for developers akin to Apple’s WWDC, is due this year May 28-29 in San Francisco’s Moscone Center West.

Sundar Pichai, Google’s Vice President of Android, Chrome and Google Apps, announced in a post over at Google+ that registration will open on March 17, 2015 at 9am PDT.

A Google account is required to apply for your seat and only one registration application per person is allowed. However, there’s no need to rush because you’ll have plenty of time to submit your registration application. Read More

If you ever set up a Gmail account over IMAP in a third-part client like Mailbox, you’re painfully aware that the experience is nowhere near Gmail’s web app on desktop.

It’s not Google’s fault – Gmail’s support for IMAP is rather smooth. To put it bluntly, IMAP just wasn’t designed with all of Gmail’s advanced features in mind.

For starters, typical operations over IMAP are noticeably slower compared to Gmail. Worse, IMAP does not support full searching of Gmail accounts and important features specific to Gmail – such as starring or archiving – frequently behave erratically over IMAP.

Realizing it doesn’t want developers to be bogged down by IMAP’s limitations, Google today at its I/O conference released the first beta of the official Gmail API.

Earlier today, Google kicked off its two-day summer conference for developers with a keynote talk. It always pays to keep tabs on competition, my colleague Joe Rosignoll and I have been covering key advancements concerning the Android platform in the form of Android L, Android Wear, Android Auto and Android TV announcements.

Making sense of it all, I’ve put together this recap of the most important developments from the Google I/O 2014 keynote. Give it a read and feel free to chime in with your thoughts and analysis in the comment section… Read More

Google has just unveiled a developer preview of Android L, its latest software version for smartphones and tablets. Android L has several improvements to its design, graphics, notifications, multitasking, battery life and more. We’ve recapped the major new features in Android L ahead, ranging from Material Design and Project Volta to Android Extension Pack and Enhanced Notifications ahead… Read More

iDownloadBlog is providing a live video stream of the Google I/O keynote, which kicks off at 9:00 AM Pacific in San Francisco. Google’s head of Android and Chrome Sundar Pichai is expected to unveil the latest version of Android, in addition to talking about the Android Wear and Android TV platforms. You can expect at least a few other announcements on top.

We’ll be providing comprehensive coverage of the keynote as it unfolds, keeping you up to date with the latest news and announcements. While waiting for the special event, perhaps go back and watch the WWDC keynote or guess what you think the name of the next Android version will be in the comments section down below. Hint: it should start with an L. Join us for a chat… Read More

Bloomberg Businessweek has published a feature-length profile with Sundar Pichai, head of the Android and Chrome divisions at Google. After a lengthy interview that details Pichai growing up in India, getting a scholarship at Stanford and eventually working at Google, the report drops some big news: the future of Android, Android Wear and Android TV will be unveiled this week, alongside other announcements… Read More

A few months ago, Google announced at its Google I/O developer conference that lifetime Android device activations had reached the 900 million mark. At the time, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt also confirmed that those activations were occurring at a rate of 1.5 million devices per day, a number that Google CEO Larry Page echoed during the search company’s second quarter earnings call on Thursday.

At that rate, there have been approximately 100,500,000 Android devices activated since the Google I/O keynote on May 15th, meaning that total activations should have exceeded the 1 billion plateau as of this weekend. An important caveat to remember, however, is that Android activations presumably fluctuate each day, meaning that these numbers are just approximate measures. There has been no official word yet from Google, but this is big news… Read More

The Internet giant kicked off its annual Google I/O developer conference with a three-hour long (!) keynote at San Francisco’s Moscone West, the same venue Apple reserved for its own five-day event next month. During the keynote, Google executives announced a much-rumored streaming music service that’s bound to give headache to the likes of Spotify, Rdio and Pandora.

Dubbed somewhat confusingly Google Play Music All Access, Google’s Android executive Chris Yerga noted on stage that “music unites us” and is “universal”. And with computing and mobile devices intertwined into our lives “there’s potential to bring that joy together.” Go past the fold for full details… Read More

Save the date for Google I/O 2013: today, the search giant confirmed its upcoming annual developer conference will run in San Francisco from May 15 through May 17, 2013. The three-day pilgrimage, just 162 days away, is bound to garner media interest with updates to Google’s key consumer products, namely Android, Nexus gadgets and the Chrome browser.

And what technology conference would it be without a few surprise announcements here and there? Curiously enough, with Google I/O 2013 the company is back to holding its biggest yearly event ahead of Apple, whose WWDC normally runs in June or July… Read More

Google I/O is underway at San Francisco’s Moscone West and the company just shared a few interesting tidbits related to the momentum of its Android platform, announcing total activations of over four hundred million devices as of June of this year.

This means that a whopping 300 million new activations have been added over the past twelve months. On the surface, the number seems to compare favorably versus the 365 million cumulative iOS device sales Apple reported at WWDC earlier this month…

Piggy-backing on Google chairman Eric Schmidt’s last December revelation that his company was working on own tablet, an Asian trade publication claims an Asus-engineered device marketed under the Nexus moniker launches at the Google I/O developers conference, which runs from June 27 through 29 in San Francisco’s Moscone West.

It’s gonna cost just $199 and feature a seven-inch display, the word on the street has it. The publication also offers tidbits regarding launch plans for Google’s first branded tablet… Read More